Card shuffler



Dec. 1, 1953 F H 'STEVENS 2,661,215

CARD SHUFFLER Filed March 6, 1950 Fred HSe Ven` JNVENTOR. v

ATTORNYJ Patented Dec. 1, 1953 UNITED STA'IES NT OFFICE 7 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved card shuiiier which is adapted toshuffle cards from two parallel extending stacks or decks, so that acard from one stack or deck falls alternately over a card from theadjacent stack or deck in a manner to insure that the two decks aresubstantially shuliied in one pile.

It is an object of this invention to provide a device for shuiing cardsfrom two parallel extending decks so that the cards from the decks fallalternately into a single pile.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a card shufer ofthis class having tapered rollers with the smaller diameters inwardly sothat upon rotation the cards from adjacent decks are deflected so thatthe forward inner corner of one card extends over the forward innercorner of the adjacent card.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide a card shuiiier ofthis class in which vthe opening in the vertical wall above the rolleris wider in front of one deck of cards than it is in front of the otherdeck, thereby insuring that cards passing through the lwider openingfall upon cards passing through the more narrow opening.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide a card shuiiier ofthis class in which the cards in one pile extend downwardly toward theirroller at a greater vertical angle than the cards from the other pile,thereby insuring that the cards extending at the lesser vertical angleare deflected by their roller to fall upon the cards extending at thegreater vertical angle.

It is yet a further object of this invention to provide a card shufflerof this class in which the trays hold the cards sloped inwardly toward apartition wall between trays, thereby insuring that the inner forwardcorner of the cards from one tray are deected by their roller to extendover the inner forward corner of the cards from the adjacent tray.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide a card shuiiier ofthis class in which the frame is tapered into a bow of slightly greaterthan the area of one card, insuring that the cards deflected in passagethrough the rollers are further deected to fall in the bow in a singlepile, or shufied deck.

It is another object of this invention to provide a card shuiiler ofthis class in which the card holding trays have nger slots therein whichare joined by finger slots in the vertical wall below the outer edge ofthe trays so that the decks or cards may be more easily placed in, ortaken from, the trays.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a card shuier ofthis class in which tapered rollers on the same shaft rotate with theshaft upon contact between a pinion on the outer end of the shaft and agear mounted on a shaft to mesh with the pinion.

Other and further objects will be apparent when the specification isconsidered in connection with the drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevation of the card shuier taken along line I-I of Fig.2.

Fig. 2 is a plan View of the shuliler taken along line --Z of Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation taken along line 3-53 of Fis. 2.

The frame I of the shuiiler comprises the side walls 2 and 3, the bow 4,the rear wall 5, the cowl the trays l and 8, the vertical wall 9, andthe partition I0. The trays 'I and are inclined or sloped inwardly anddownwardly from the side walls 2 and 3 respectively toward the verticalcenter partition I0 and also from the rear wall 5 toward theinner edgesIl and I2 adjacent the rollers I6 and I'I. The vertical wall 9 extendsdownwardly on one side to terminate at the surface I4, while the wall onthe other side terminates at a higher elevation at the surface I5.

The rollers I6 and I'I are mounted on the shaft I8 and both are taperedinwardly so that the smaller diameters I9 and 20 are substantially incontact centrally of the frame. A suitable nut and washer 2l isinstalled on the end of the shaft I8 outwardly of the wall 2 and thepinion 23 is mounted on the other end of the shaft i3. The gear 25 ismounted on the shaft 26 to mesh with the pinion 23, and this shaft 2textends through the frame l, and has the nut and -washer 2l on the otherend thereof.

Slots 3i and S2 are provided in the trays 'I and 6 respectively andadjoining slots 33 and 34 of similar size are provided in the verticalwall 5. The slots 3|, 32, 33, and 3i are of -sulciently ample horizontalcross-sectional area to permit a thumb of above average size to beinserted thereinto. Such slots facilitate the manual handling of thecards so that they may be more easily placed in, or taken out of, thetrays.

In operation piles or decks of cards are placed in the trays 'i and 8,and the handle 35 on the gear 25 is rotated in a clockwise direction asshown in Fig. 1. This rotates the pinion 23 in a counterclockwisedirection. The decks of cards 37 and 38, as shown in Fig. l, rest at therear on the trays 'I and 8 respectively and at their forward ends theyrest respectively on the rollers l and l1 with their upper forwardcorners stopped against the vertical surface S of the wall 9.

As the rollers I6 and Il are both tapered inwardly, upon rotation theytend to deflect the inner forward corner of the cards inwardly fromnormal card position. This tendency to deflect is further abetted by thefact that the trays l and 8 are inclined or sloped inwardly toward thepartition l0. The trays 'i and 8 are also sloped toward the rollers I6and V.' and the tray l is inclined toward such rollers at a greatervertical angle than the tray Thus the cards in this tray pass over theroller I6 and are pointed downwardly at a greater angle than are thecards which pass over the roller Il. This feature tends to insure thatthe cards from the tray 8 fall over the cards from the tray l. Anadditional fact favoring this tendency is the provision of a wider slotor opening Il! above the roller Il, by virtue of the vertical wall 9above this roller being terminated at a higher point than such wall isterminated above the roller i6. This feature accommodates the cards fromthe tray 8, which are pointed downwardly upon passing over the roller ata lesser Vertical angle than are the cards from the tray 1. This can beunderstood if Fig. l is considered, the view of which is taken alongline l--I of Fig. 2. The deck 38 is on the near side and rests in thetray 8 which is sloped from the rear wall 5 toward the ywall ii at alesser vertical angle than the tray on the far side. Thus the two carddecks, as shown, rest at different inclinations and the card 5ldischarged from the tray 8 passes across the plane of the vertical wallS at a slightly higher elevation than and without interference to thecard 52 discharged in a path of lesser incline from the tray l. Thevertical wall 9 should extend downwardly and terminate as near therollers as possible to locate the decks as they diminish in height onbeing fed forward by the rollers, and yet must permit ample card passagespace therebeneath. Because of angle difference, the card passage slotbetween the terminal edge i 5 and the roller li needs to be wider thanthat provided under the terminal edge ld and above the roller I6.

As the deflected cards pass through the rollers the outer forwardcorners thereof contact the inside surfaces 43 and M and are furtherdeflected by such surfaces to fall in a single pile of cards 45 in thebow ll, as shown in Fig. 1. The bow of necessity must be just slightlygreater in area than a card, and wider in transverse width than a card.

As shown in the drawings, the material employed for the frame I of thisinvention should preferably be of some transparent material, astransparent plastic, so that the card players may observe the shuling ofthe cards. In this manner this invention accomplishes a utilitarianpurpose, while at the same time it amuses the watchers by permittingthem to observe the speed and accuracy with which the cards areshuffled.

Broadly this invention considers an improved card shuier in which thesloping of the trays at different vertical angles in the direction ofthe rollers; the sloping of the trays downwardly toward a centralpartition between trays; the provision of a wider opening above theroller in front of the lesser sloped tray; and the provision of rollerswith smaller diameters inwardly; all combine to insure that the cardsfrom the trays alter nately fall one upon the other.

What is claimed is:

1. A card shuiiier including, a frame, a shaft mounted in said frame,co-axially extending, tapered rollers on said shaft with their smallerdiameters inwardly and substantially in contact, means to rotate saidshaft, means adapted to support adjacent decks of cards at diiferentvertical angles and with the bottom card of each deck in contact withsaid rollers so that rotation of the rollers moves the bottom cards fromthe support means and moves the forward corners of the cards inwardly sothat a card from the deck supported at the lesser vertical angle tendsto fall upon an adjacent card from the deck supported at the greatervertical angle, said frame being tapered into a bow to tend to deflectsaid cards from adjacent support means inwardly to tend to insure thatsaid cards fall alternately into a single stacked pile.

2. A card shufer including a frame, a shaft mounted in said frame,co-axially extending, tapered rollers on said shaft with their smallerdiameters inwardly and substantially in contact, means to rotate saidshaft, means adapted to support adjacent decks of cards with the bottomcards in contact with said rollers, said support means including a trayadjacent each roller, said trays also being adjacent to each other andsloped downwardly and inwardly of said frame toward one another andsloped downwardly and inwardly of the frame toward said rollers atvertical angles different to one another so that the forward corner of acard sloped at the greater angle will tend to fall beneath the adjacentforr ward corner of the adjacent card sloped at the lesser angle, saidsupport means also including a vertical wall in said frame above saidrollers presenting card passage slots above the rollers, that slot forthe passage of a card sloped at the lesser Vertical angle beingvertically larger than the other slot.

3. A card shuffler including, a frame, rotatable means mounted in saidframe, means in said frame adapted to support adjacent decks of cards atdifferent Vertical angles with the bottom cards in contact with saidrotatable means, said support means including a vertical wall in saidframe above said rotatable means with a wider opening above saidrotatable means confronting the deck of cards sloped at the lesservertical angle to tend to insure that upon rotation of said rotatablemeans cards passing through the wider opening will fall on top of cardspassing through the more narrow openmg.

4. A card shuiiler including, a frame, a rotatable means mounted thereincomprising, a pair of co-axially extending, tapered rollers with theirsmaller diameters inwardly of said frame, a pair of support means slopedinwardly of said frame and adjacent to each other and sloped downwardlytoward said rotatable means at different vertical angles so that theforward corner of a card sloped at the greater angle will tend to fallbeneath the adjacent forward corner of the adjacent card sloped at thelesser angle.

5. A card shuiller including, a frame, a rotatable means mounted thereincomprising, a pair of co-axially extending, tapered rollers with theirsmaller diameters inwardly of said frame, a pair of support meansadjacent to each other and sloped inwardly of said frame and slopeddownwardly toward said rotatable means at different vertical angles sothat the forward corner of a card sloped at the greater angle will tendto fall beneath the adjacent forward corner of the adjacent card slopedat the lesser angle, said frame being tapered into a bow of slightlygreater area than a single card into which the cards may fall as astacked deck.

6. A card shuffier including, a frame, a rotatable means mounted thereincomprising, a pair of co-axially extending, tapered rollers with theirsmaller diameters inwardly of said frame, a pair of support meansadjacent to each other and sloped inwardly of said frame and slopeddownwardly toward said rotatable means at different vertical angles sothat the forward corner of a card sloped at the greater angle will tendto fall beneath the adjacent forward corner of the adjacent card slopedat the lesser angle, said support means having finger slots in thesloped portions and said frame having adjoining nger slots in thevertical wall thereof so that cards may be easily placed on said slopedportions.

7. A card shuffler including, a frame, a. rotatable means mountedtherein comprising, a pair of co-axially extending, tapered rollers withtheir smaller diameters inwardly of said frame, a pair of support meansadjacent to each other and sloped inwardly of said frame and slopeddownwardly toward said rotatable means at different vertical angles sothat the forward corner of a card sloped at the greater angle will tendto fall beneath the adjacent forward corner of the adjacent card slopedat the lesser angle, said support means having a vertical wall extendingbetween the sloped portions to separate the cards.

FRED H. STEVENS.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,020,175 Arnold Mar. 12, 1912 1,246,297 Mchell NOV. 13, 19171,846,063 Matthaey Feb. 23, 1932 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date404,677 France Oct. 26, 1909

